I continue to be a bit stunned by emails, direct message Tweets, etc. from some Republicans who suggest a)Mitt Romney really hit it out of the ballpark in his speech, b)he’s going to get a big poll bounce which is already evident, c)the Clint Eastwood appearance will be proven to be a masterstroke. It’s VERY important to note that not all Republicans are saying this. Not by a longshot.
If you do a Google search you’ll see plenty who don’t agree with that, more early polls (so far) that show Romney is not getting a bounce off of the convention (and the Dems may face the same thing in these days of the Internet and only one hour of network time devoted to the multi-day spinfests) than those that show he benefitted — and if you think the Eastwood appearance was utterly peachy then go back and watch Ann Romney’s face as he talked. And if it was so masterful, then why isn’t the video on Romney’s website’s video page? Why isn’t it up on the GOP website’s video page?
Maybe there’s just a slight (several days) delay and it’ll be up shortly, since according to some it was so helpful.
Conservative columnist George Will often gives a refeshingly independent take on events. And he has now articulated what many political analysts have said about Mitt Romney’s acceptance speech: Romney broke no new ground, didn’t really tell voters much that they didn’t already know, and didn’t do much to woo over those who were tuning in who might not already be supporters.
American politics has increasingly become about the reaffirmation of already-held beliefs, and repeating these beliefs to others who see things differently over and over, rather than trying to use reason, facts or well-constructed beliefs bolstered by an array of facts (that fact checkers will agree are facts) to try and win over those who see things differently.
There was one person in particular at the convention who could do this and get a listen from those who may disagree and who came out of it having revealed more to the public.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.